


Edelgard's Bizarre Adventure: To Save An Empire

by DankNihilus



Series: Edelgard's Bizarre Adventure: To Save An Empire [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, Gen, OC, Stand
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:28:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29082402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DankNihilus/pseuds/DankNihilus
Summary: Edelgard von Hresvelg and her fellow House Leaders barely survive an assassination attempt that involves the Garreg Mach monastery being besieged. During their attempt to hide and escape, they come across an ancient reliquary filled with holy power that grants them new abilities named Stands. However, the mark that appeared on Edelgard's hand reawakens an old nightmare, so now she must hurry back to Enbarr with her faithful retainer Hubert to rescue her father from his evil ministers who she knows is involved in everything. However, the journey will not be safe for either of them.
Series: Edelgard's Bizarre Adventure: To Save An Empire [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2133711





	Edelgard's Bizarre Adventure: To Save An Empire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edelgard receives a letter from home, which she had been waiting for. However, that letter was dated to over a month ago. She worries about the state of affairs back home in Enbarr.

**Chapter One**

**News From Home**

Edelgard von Hresvelg received a letter from back home, in Enbarr. It was encased in a small, white envelope, sealed with wax bearing the crest of her family on it. The symbol pressed onto the wax was reminiscent of the one emblazoned on the red flag that hung behind her. It depicted a double-headed eagle with its wings spread open, embroidered in gold thread. It was a detailed piece, done through the hands of a master of the thread. The eyes of both eagles were sharp, and their beaks were parted open as if crying out to strike fear into the hearts of enemies. Near the two heads you would find the emblem. It was the flag of the Adrestian Empire. And Edelgard’s family crest represented the entire nation’s monarchy.

Carefully she opened the envelope, but she moved to take out the paper inside very slowly. And when she held it in her hands, she hesitated to unfold it. For a little over a year now, Edelgard was in the Officer’s Academy in Garreg Mach, a monastery nestled in the remote mountains that form the central point of Fódlan. She understood what her goal here was, it was parallel to her classmates. They were all sent to the Officer’s Academy to learn how to become military assets to their nations. Edelgard, more than anyone else, had a chip on her shoulder. After all, she was the heiress apparent to the Adrestian throne, and she believed that a monarch with no talent for war cannot guarantee the protection of her people. However, she also suspected that there was another reason why she was sent to the academy by her father.

This would not be the first letter from home she would receive ever since she left a year ago. But the content of her most recent correspondences painted a bleak imagery of rising tension and politics in the empire, politics of course being skills that she had only started to cultivate and understand herself. Edelgard’s father was never a strong monarch, but the princess loved him all the same and always looked up to him. She did not like the descriptions of the happenings back home, for she worried about her father. The emperor’s ministers and councilors have apparently split into different groups, all vying for his attention. They all succumbed to factionalism while the people of the empire languished with their inaction. Emperor Ionius was a vacillating man, and though Edelgard did not like to admit it, the old man was also indecisive. More than that, a failed harvest in the Gronder Basin and a plague in the western reaches have also stoked the agitation of the peasants and commoners.

Edelgard always thought that maybe she was sent away to Garreg Mach so that she could be protected from these sorts of upheavals. Her father, at least, saw that far into the future - even though he tended not to in other matters. But she also thought that this future was perfectly avoidable.

But now it was time for her to open this letter in particular, written to her by her handmaiden who remained in their home in Enbarr. Edelgard was fond of the old lady, who took care of her for as long as she could remember in place of her late mother. When her eyes captured all the words, there was one thing in particular that caught her attention even though she had not read the letter yet. The date written was more than a month ago: Great Tree Moon, Imperial Year 1749. It was very odd, because they exchanged letters very frequently and it would only take her a few days to receive a reply, and she would usually write back on the same day. Edelgard’s attention now remained fixed on the date, she did not want to go further. She had a feeling that this would be bad news. Nevertheless, she had to know the goings-on back home.

Edelgard swallowed. Her handmaiden said that things simply escalated during this past month, and she said that she did not feel safe, in verbatim. She did not expect her maid to be privy to the politics of the empire too, but the fact that she knew that peasant rebellions have been popping up in the provinces of Adrestia, and that they had to be crushed by the princes and nobles who owned and governed those territories, was enough proof for Edelgard that these sorts of things happened frequently and with a big enough magnitude for the information to trickle down to the rabble. But the letter goes on. The maid wrote that while the other princes were occupied by these peasant revolts, the Duke of Arundel and his followers started to get closer and closer to the emperor until it reached a point where their counsel became his largest influence. The letter ends with more professions of worry from the poor old woman, but she wrote that she was mainly concerned about the princess’ safety and that she would pray to the goddess for exactly that.

The fact that this was sent a month ago made shivers run down Edelgard’s spine. What has happened since then? She needed to know! Very quickly, she took a piece of paper herself and started writing a reply as fast as she could, taking the quill from the inkwell where it rested. Edelgard’s haste caused her penmanship to suffer, though it was only bad relative to her perfectionism and the letters were clearly still legible. Even so, anyone who knew the princess would see in the writings that something was up. Edelgard apologized in the letter for not responding right away, then she explained that she did not receive the message until a month later, and that she was desperate for updates on the situation back home. And there it was, her reply; she simply wanted to know what was happening. In her haste, she even forgot to write in the letter a fervent wish for the safety of everyone. She quickly put this letter in an envelope and sealed it with wax as well, not forgetting to press the emblem of House Hresvelg onto the wax before it dried. Once all of these were done, she rose from her seat.

She was inside her room in the dormitory, seated on her chair and desk while studying before she received and read the letter. Now after she slammed her door open, she was racing down to the mailbox past the gates of the monastery. The postman was not coming until later afternoon, but she wanted to hurry up and put this letter in the box as if that changed anything. Edelgard was clearly not thinking, or if she was then her mind was obviously not on the same page. When she had done it, she was short of breath, and a little sweaty. She did not realize that she brisk walked her way down to the gates, occasionally breaking into a jog.

She stood around there, in front of the mailbox by the gate, staring at it without knowing what to do next. Maybe she was resting, her body automatically did for her what Edelgard’s mind had not yet grasped. Her attention would be shifted again towards something else when the sound of loud bells rang in her ears. She turned around and looked upwards, toward the tall belfry of the monastery. The light of the sun also made her squint her eyes, now she also realized that she was standing under the heat for a few moments back there. The sound of the bell and the sun being directly overhead meant that it was noontime, so Edelgard aptly walked back to the monastery for lunch.

Because of her haste, she barged out of her room without wearing her full uniform on the way to the mailbox. It was not common to see Edelgard not wearing her black jacket, but here she was right now lining up in the cafeteria wearing only her sleeveless black undershirt. People may have noticed, but no one brought it to her attention. She certainly hadn’t noticed. Even queuing up to get her pasta for lunch, Edelgard’s mind was still far away. She caused a small delay in the line when she stayed in front of the canteen for a little longer than usual. She had to be snapped back to reality by the cook, Edelgard quickly apologized and left.

The young lady wandered all over the cafeteria, looking for a place to sit. This time, she was paying attention. While she was looking around, she spotted a waving arm in the distance that was seemingly a signal for her. Edelgard blinked, and her vision focused on the person that the arm was attached to. It was Claude, telling her to come sit with them. He shared that table with Dimitri. She took the offer and approached both of them, taking a seat next to Dimitri and opposite to Claude. Their lunches were already half-eaten.

“What happened to your uniform?” Claude asked.

Edelgard looked bewildered for a second, before she looked down and could see her bare arms. “Oh I… I must have left it in my room,” she replied with a sigh.

“I thought you were trying for a new look,” he said with a chuckle, “You don’t look too bad. To be honest, you can rock that look and I would have no problem with it.”

“That doesn’t sound appropriate, Claude,” said Dimitri, who frowned as he voiced his disapproval. Then he turned towards Edelgard, “It’s certainly not like you to be… um, careless. Is there something wrong, El?”

“Listen to them and their nicknames…” muttered Claude, who rolled his eyes.

There was a delay to Edelgard’s response, and after she took a quick breath she smiled and started twirling her pasta around her fork, “No, nothing’s wrong. I’m fine. Thank you for asking, Dimitri.”

Claude chimed in with a whisper to himself again, though his eyes also widened a little before he spoke, “She doesn’t have a nickname for him? Does that mean..?”

The blond male continued to look at her, his blue eyes moved from her face to her hands as she moved her fork, “If… you say so,” he spoke, “If something’s bothering you, I’m here. I mean, we’re here.”

The young lady cracked a smirk once more, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Edelgard went back to staring at her pasta while she twirled it around her fork, and Dimitri himself was looking down towards his plate as cut up his meat. An odd silence quickly befell the group, and Claude sighed before hanging his head. He suddenly felt like he was in the middle of a thickly awkward atmosphere that threatened to suffocate him, but at least he gathered the other House Leaders together for a purpose, thus he didn’t need to stay with them for too long. He had a feeling that they wanted to be left alone anyway.

“Alright, attention - you two. It was hard enough trying to get the three of us together in one table. I have something to say, so listen up,” he said.

These words caught Dimitri’s attention, who looked up towards him, but not Edelgard’s. Regardless, Claude continued to speak, getting right to his point.

To Edelgard however, his rambling sounded just like a series of muffled noises to her ears. Once more her thoughts were elsewhere. The fear and worry that gripped her while she read the letter sent from home was still there, but now it was coupled with… helplessness, and she hated how she knew nothing about the outside world. Either she was too focused on her studies at the cost of being distant from the world, or Garreg Mach was just designed to keep outward distractions away. It was a very effective establishment, if that’s true. Her mind raced with thoughts about what could have possibly happened to her home while she was absent.

She privately confided to her father before that she did not like Lord Arundel because he was too suspicious, and the other nobles such as Count Varley and Duke Aegir that the emperor surrounds himself with. She saw them as being too decadent, and she also knew that their territories in the empire also happened to be the hotbed of peasant and worker unrest. She also assumed that the revolt that she learned about from the letter was a direct result of their greed and negligence. Her face showed a light scowl as she thought of these.

But her features eased up once more when she recalled the time she was told by her father that she would be enrolled in the Officer’s Academy, and that she would likely stay there for four years. She recalled that there seemed to be a sort of urgency in the emperor’s voice when he told Edelgard. Back then she still did not know what it meant, she just thought that he was busy. But what if it turns out that he was actually out of time, and he knew it? Once more Edelgard shivered, but she tried to not make it obvious. The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that she was quickly ushered out into her tertiary education to protect her. She was safe in Garreg Mach, and she has been. But the gap in her knowledge of events from back home stressed her to no end. Just… what happened? Did her father turn out to be right about sending her away to protect her?

Earlier when she drowned out the voices of everyone else in the cafeteria, Edelgard simply heard some of Claude’s muffled voice in her ears which wasn’t terribly disruptive to her and her thoughts yet. However, soon afterwards she realized that the muffled sound had become louder and was actually causing vibrations inside her head. Well that’s what it felt like anyway. Edelgard snapped back to reality because of this, she blinked once and widened her eyes, and then she lifted her head to look at Claude.

“...Hey!” the young man called out to her, waving his hand in front of her face, “You’re not really okay, are you? It’s not like you at all to not listen, Edelgard. This is important after all!”

The white-haired young lady stared ahead with an aghast expression, she processed Claude’s words before she put her palm over her face. 

“I-I’m sorry, I… wasn’t paying attention,” she sighed, “Would you mind repeating that for me, please?”

Claude had a frown on his face too, “I wouldn’t mind, really. But I also think that you’re currently too distracted by… something, and if we talked about this now then chances are you most likely won’t retain all the information. Nothing against you and your memory of course, but distracted minds tend to do that. I read that in a book once,” he said.

“Maybe you should take it easy, El. You’ve been hard at work this past few days, I noticed. Maybe that’s the reason you’re so tired. You haven’t even eaten anything yet,” Dimitri spoke next.

“Lunchtime is almost over too,” came Claude’s comment.

Edelgard let go of her fork, leaving it stuck in the center of the mass of pasta on her plate which caused it to remain upright. She closed her eyes and sighed, then dipped her head slightly which was a quiet gesture of apology towards Claude, “It’s… well I think I just feel homesick, that’s all,” she said. She tried to laugh, but it didn’t sound genuine at all, “I don’t think I need to rest because of it though. That would just mean more work for everybody else.”

Dimitri turned towards Claude, “Maybe we should give El her space today,” he said, “We still have time, right? We can fill her in with the details later. I think Professor Byleth will understand.”

“That’s what I just said,” replied Claude, “Listen, Edelgard. For the next time, after you’ve cleared your mind, it’s your turn to approach _me_ for the details, alright?”

She smiled at him and nodded her head, “I understand.”

These three young people were all skilled in warfare, from personal combat to command. They have traveled their own separate paths to get here, and have grown ever stronger. Claude had been training with the longbow for years even before he was tall enough to handle the six-foot bow, even though such weapons belonged to the past in the age of the musket and the cannon. He would perch on a tall rock as a child and string the bow from that position, before firing on target dummies or fast moving critters like rabbits. He was a natural at it. Dimitri had also been training for as long as he walked. He had his own tragedies to cope with, and he believed that through strength of spirit and arms he could prevent such pain and sorrow from happening to the people he cared about. Edelgard was the daughter of the emperor of Adrestia, and with that prestige of royalty came great responsibility. Despite being the youngest of ten children, the mantle of heiress apparent was passed on to her after a series of misfortunes took the lives of her older brothers. She has been primed and groomed to lead men since she was old enough to walk. Leadership was in her soul.

Knowing those, it is therefore not a stretch to say that the three House Leaders had instincts that were sharper than most, especially when it came to danger. They all felt something was amiss, and the three of them lifted their heads and looked at each other in the eyes, one after another. Then a distant sound rang in the air, so far away relative to them that it only sounded like a loud boom - akin to a clap of thunder.

Everyone else in the room appeared to be oblivious, and Claude himself was about to stand up when Edelgard saw a shadow of something that grew larger and larger from the corner of her eye. Their table was situated near a large window where the light of the sun permeated, and the princess was seated to the left side of that table. She saw something traveling towards them at a high speed, represented by the shade of black that suddenly interrupted the ray of light, and she looked up. Right at that moment, that object crashed violently through the fragile window where the three leaders sat.

Glass shattered, and flew everywhere. Luckily, both Edelgard and Claude managed to avoid enough of the sharp debris exactly because of their gut instincts that something wrong was about to happen. Edelgard though, having little option, took a deep breath and curled where she sat, using her arms to shield her head. Because she was not wearing her uniform jacket, her bare arms were scraped by the pieces of glass. The object that flew from nowhere and crashed into the monastery was not stopped by the glass window. It continued to zoom past it where it unfortunately collided with the back of an unsuspecting student, driving them to the table which was also promptly crushed. The panicked screams followed afterwards.

Dimitri came to the aid of Edelgard, pulling her away from her chair to drag her to a safer place, “Are you okay?!” he asked.

The princess groaned in discomfort and pain, before she looked at her left arm where shards of glass were embedded. Luckily, she did not suffer a head wound. 

“I’m fine! Somehow!” she responded to Dimitri’s question.

Then, more of that loud booming sound from outside rang in the air again, and could be heard by all.


End file.
